Different Class 2019

10 August - DOK, Ghent14.00 - Free for members

This year, we’ll be organising the 4th edition of Different Class, the annual festival of Subbacultcha Belgium that gathers the most trailblazing acts of the moment. It’s also the 8th time we’re putting all our forces together to present you one of the most exciting Summer festivals in Belgium. Back in 2012, when our baby was born as Wastelands, we sprouted from the fertile ground of DOK, a creative hub near the docks of Ghent. 2019 marks the end of DOK at this legendary location so we’re going back to where it all once started for Different Class 2019.

‘We don’t want no trouble, we just want the right to be different. That’s all.’Different class = describes something that is ‘in a class of its own’– Jarvis Cocker

Bladee

Five years have past since his first official release and it feels like Swedish rapper Bladee has finally really managed to hit the nail on the head. His latest mixtape ICEDANCER simply kills it. This seventh project of the Drain Gang CEO and long-time Yung Lean friend and collaborator is perhaps the iciest trap music that has surfaced in a while. No wonder it’s doing rightfully well. His instantly recognisable sound is steadily maturing; flirting with fame while reaching out to true underground innovators in rap music (like Cartier God and Black Kray, and the producer squad Working On Dying). Bladee stays prayed up and that won’t change anytime soon.

FAKA

If you’re not familiar with them yet, here’s the deal: FAKA stands for a performance art duo turned cultural movement hailing from Johannesburg. They express themselves through multiple media with the central theme being black queer bodies navigating the cis-hetero-topia of post-colonial Africa. Their mesmerising music features insanely danceable Afro-electronic beats that leave no one unaffected. Be ready to whine your hips and get down!

coucou chloe

Hard-hitting post-club sounds with almost devilish processed vocals. The experimental club and slow, tactile trap tracks have certainly conveyed an impression. Since her first release about 2 years ago, it has been smooth sailing for coucou chloe. Her last EP ‘Erika Jane’ (her real name) was well-received and the co-founder of NUXXE, a label she runs with Sega Bodega and Shygirl, even saw her track called ‘Doom’ being adopted in a Fenty x Puma fashion show by Rihanna. The future is on her side and, if you ask us, may her momentum go on.

Erika de Casier

Smokey beats and soul-soothing vocals immerse you in a delicate world of tenderness and intimacy that is her debut album ‘Essentials’. Albeit reminiscent of the 90s, the songs of the young Danish artist breathe new life today, her sounds colored with a tinge of nostalgia yet uniquely modern at the very same time. Holding enormous potential but retaining the down-to-earth feel, de Casier just wants to do her thing, in her own unique way.

Juan Wauters

If you haven’t heard yet of Uruguayan-American singer-songwriter Juan Wauters, he might become your favourite dotty, mullet-rocking crooner. Releasing on indie label Captured Tracks, also home to acts like DIIV and Mac Demarco, he perfectly fits the label’s Anglo-Saxon roster but also colours it at the same time. His new album ‘La Onda De Juan Pablo’ is entirely sung in his native Spanish, written all over the Southern-American continent and consists of different genres from the countries he transited. Wauters can be aligned with artists like Daniel Johnston and Syd Barnett: he’s just plugging in his own voice.

Lauren Auder

To say the least about the producer Lauren Auder is that he’s building up. Last year, this genre-bending artist released his gripping debut EP ‘Who Carry’s You’, following his signing with True Panther Sounds, a record label also home to King Krule, Abra and MC Bin Laden. While doing great music-wise, Auder is also leaving his mark in the fashion world with his gender-fluid sense of style, modeling for Dazed, Another Man and Vogue. Given the artist’s young age, the maturity of Auder’s lyricism is extraordinary, with his blend of intricate sounds, mythical imagery and enthralling baritone vocals bringing forth a cathartic experience.